Hard Water Bar Manager Erik Adkins pours 1.5 oz. of Buffalo Trace Bourbon into a shaker cup as he prepares the "Bourbon Lift", a drink featured on the menu at Hard Water August 5, 2014 at Hard Water in San Francisco, Calif.

Hard Water Bar Manager Erik Adkins measures out .5oz of Straus heavy cream to pour into a shaker cup as he prepares the "Bourbon Lift", a drink featured on the menu at Hard Water August 5, 2014 at Hard Water in San Francisco, Calif.

Hard Water Bar Manager Erik Adkins strains the drink mixture into an 8oz fizz glass after shaking it for 10 seconds as he prepares the "Bourbon Lift", a drink featured on the menu at Hard Water August 5, 2014 at Hard Water in San Francisco, Calif.

Hard Water Bar Manager Erik Adkins adds soda water to the drink mixture while using a bar spoon to paddle the the liquid as he prepares the "Bourbon Lift", a drink featured on the menu at Hard Water August 5, 2014 at Hard Water in San Francisco, Calif.

There are all manner of categories of mixed drinks — toddies, fixes, fizzes, flips and sours, to name a few. And now, thanks to a couple of San Francisco bartenders, we have a brand new 21st century classification — lifts. Lifts are pretty simple, and they are light and airy as well as dark and heavy at the same time.

Eric Adkins is bar director for the Slanted Door Group, and part of his job entails him being the bar manager at Hard Water, the American whiskey bar at Pier 3, the Embarcadero.

Jennifer Colliau, bar manager at the Interval at Long Now in San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center, is also the owner of Small Hand Foods, a company that makes top-class cocktail ingredients that are available online and at certain retail outlets in six states, as well as Australia and Singapore.

These are the culprits who first created lifts.

Lifts comprise a base spirit, heavy cream, orgeat (a complex almond syrup available from Small Hand Foods), a liqueur and soda water. And it’s the Bourbon Lift, a drink available at Hard Water, that I bring to you today.

I’m a bit of a bourbon freak, as you might have noticed over the years, so this was a natural for me, and this drink also calls for Nola coffee liqueur, made locally at the St. George distillery in Alameda. It’s tough to drink just one of these, so be careful.

Adapted from a recipe by Erik Adkins, Hard Water, San Francisco, and Jennifer Colliau, the Interval at Long Now.

1½ ounces Buffalo Trace bourbon

½ ounce Small Hand Foods orgeat

½ ounce Straus organic cream

½ ounce St. George Nola coffee liquor

Soda water

Instructions: Shake everything except soda water over ice and strain into an 8-ounce fizz glass*. Add the soda water while stirring the drink to achieve a good head. After it sits for 20 seconds or so, add an ounce more soda water to lift the head above the glass. Serve with a metal spoon so you can eat the foam.